Arizona Man Sentenced on Wire Fraud Charge

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 6, 2012

Contact: Mark E. Salter
Assistant United States Attorney
605-357-2360

U.S. Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announced that Chadrick A. Sayer, age 33, of Tucson, Arizona, appeared before U.S. District Judge Roberto A. Lange on June 5, 2012. Sayer pled guilty to Count II of a Superseding Indictment that charged him with Wire Fraud. The maximum penalty upon conviction is 20 years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, or both, and period of supervised release of 3 years.

Chadrick A. Sayer was sentenced to 30 months in custody, 3 years of supervised release, a $100 assessment to the Victim Assistance Fund, and restitution in the amount of $218,863.11 to Dell, Inc.

The conviction stems from a scheme on or about between December 2007 and June 2011 when Chadrick A. Sayer and a co-defendant devised a scheme to obtain money and property from Dell, Inc., by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, and did so by means of wire communication, writings, signs, signals, and sounds, approximating 616 transactions totaling approximately $242,926.25.

The Defendants would identify service tags of an existing Dell, Inc., computer and utilize the Dell, Inc., website to fraudulently transfer ownership of the Dell, Inc., computer from the registered owners to themselves.

The Defendants would then contact Dell Technical Support and claim that their Dell, Inc., computer was not functioning appropriately and properly, providing Dell, Inc., with the fraudulently obtained computer identifying information. They would negotiate to receive a replacement component, or in some cases, a replacement computer, pursuant to the warranty provisions of the computer, have the parts or computers shipped to one of five different addresses in Pierre, and then would sell the computer parts on eBay.

During the dates of the conspiracy, and as part of the scheme, the Defendants had active PayPal accounts to collect the proceeds from the sale of the computers, computer components, and computer parts that the Defendants sold. Approximately $200,000 was deposited into the Defendants' PayPal accounts during the dates of the conspiracy. Both Defendants had Wells Fargo Bank accounts associated with their PayPal accounts to accumulate the proceeds of their scheme and fraud.

The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Secret Service. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Randolph J. Seiler is prosecuting the case.

Chadrick A. Sayer was allowed to self-report to the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Tucson, Arizona, no later than 11:00 a.m. on June 15, 2012.